Brian Perry
Brian Perry is the newest member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra double bass section. Prior to his appointment in 2013, he was a member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra for 9 seasons. He has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, and often performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. An active collaborator, Brian is a frequent guest artist with pianist Buddy Bray for the Cliburn Foundation’s Musical Awakenings Educational Concert Series and has performed locally on the Spectrum Chamber Music, Fine Arts Chamber Players and Cliburn at the Modern series. Additionally he has appeared as guest artist with the Vermeer String Quartet and pianist Natalie Zhu on the Bay Chamber Concerts series in Rockport, Maine. In recent seasons, he has served as the bassist in Miguel Harth-Bedoya’s Caminos del Inka ensemble and as a member of the Funkytown All-Stars, an all double-bass quartet based in Fort Worth. Always keeping his eyes open for new repertoire for the double bass, Brian performed his transcription of William Bolcom’s “Graceful Ghost Rag” for the composer himself in an all-Bolcom program at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth in 2010.
Brian earned his music degrees from Boston University and the University of North Texas. His principal teachers include Larry Moore, Jeff Bradetich and Edwin Barker. Brian is currently adjunct lecturer of double bass at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. He also serves as a board member for the International Society of Bassists (I.S.B.) and the Bradetich Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting the double bass as a solo instrument. Committed to educating and mentoring young bassists, he has adjudicated and presented masterclasses for both the 2015 I.S.B. convention and the TCU Bass Fest and since 2010 has been the double bass instructor at the highly-acclaimed Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, MA, one of the nation’s premier summer orchestral training programs for high-school students.
Brian and his wife, Kathryn, a Fort Worth Symphony violinist, have two lovely daughters, Madeleine and Margaret.